Sustainability // making conscious choices as a potter
Never before has it been more important for the studio potter to consider the impact they are having on the environment.
Pottery is one of the oldest known crafts, its beautiful and amazing. You can walk into countless museums and discover so much about clay, how it is created, how it has been used and you will definitely find gorgeous examples of sustainable work.
CoCA,York Art Gallery.
Sometimes when looking back at the methods and tools used by others, we can be inspired to the embrace a slower and more sustainable approach to modern ceramic practices. These days there are many studio potters creating work using traditional and modern techniques, that have been evolved and refined by the wonderful artisans that came before us. The problem is the industrial world has also evolved and the harvesting of materials widely used in ceramics can not always be trusted to be ethical, sustainable or even traceable which is a real worry.
Accountability, understanding and traceability is desperately needed to ensure we are not supporting corrupt regulations in the mining sector, poor protection of human rights and harmful damage to our precious environment.
Everyone knows that now is the time to prevent the effects of climate change and we all need to make changes in our everyday lives to protect the planet we all call home. The saying “reduce, reuse and recycle” is a familiar and well used term. We know plastic is bad and we also know we should take our canvas bags to the supermarkets! There are stunning little refill shops popping up in loads of towns across Britain, we are more than aware it’s the small habits that can make the big changes.
When it comes to studio pottery, a sustainable practice can be adopted for ethical, environmental and functional reasons, however these values can also be easily dismissed by the makers and of course the beauty of handmade can also be misleading to the consumer.
For example, As a potter if I don’t make my own glaze, I cant guarantee what is in it and when I buy my clays, if I don’t ask the supplier, I will have no idea where its come from or how its made.
Basically as a consumer, you could be drinking your oat milk, fair-trade coffee from a beautiful hand crafted mug chanting ‘be the change’ and unbeknown to you, that mug may contain Bone Ash (the ground down bones of cattle) which is sometimes used in glaze to make it shinny and cute. Or lets say the mug is blue, most shades of blue are created using cobalt which Amnesty International revealed is being mined by thousands of children using basic tools with risk of injury and death...
So you see, some transparency is needed and I believe that as a studio potter, myself and others should be held accountable for what we produce and how, because the planet and its people needs us too!
It mainly comes down to understanding the materials, the tools and the working methods I use. Like everything in todays world I can buy clay, glazes and raw ingredients with a double tap on a screen and produce darling pots without any knowledge about what I’m using.
In my opinion gaining knowledge and then making conscious choices is the most environmentally friendly thing any potter can do!
Of course that takes more time and requires a slow approach, which is not favored by all, I get it! and I also understand that many people don’t really care where their stuff comes from because they just love the ease of capitalist consumerism...
#blindnyc (blind consumerism in NYC) created by Ivan Farias
Clearly a slow sustainable approach is something I am passionate about and it is to big of a subject to fully cover in one Journal post, so this is my first on the matter but there will be more. I’m definitely not saying I am perfect because that is not possible for anyone, but what I am saying is…
“I’m learning, trying my best and I’m being transparent”
